News: (2 September, 2016) I have been re-elected the President of the World Archaeological Congress at the Plenary of WAC-8 Kyoto 2016.

News: (23 May, 2015) I was awarded 5th Gand Prize of the Japanese Archaeological Association for Mizoguchi, Koji. 2013. The Archaeology of Japan: from the earliest rice farming villages to the rise of the state. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. （http://archaeology.jp/about/award/award5recip.htm）

News: I have been elected the 6th president of World Archaeological Congress (WAC), January, 2013

My mission in teaching and conducting research activities at Kyushu University is as follows:

1. Educating students as to how to excavate, record, and make sense of the material culture of the past by referring to very latest outcomes of international theoretical and methodological discussions.

2. Teaching students the "contextuality" of doing archaeology as a profession in contemporary world in which the past is given increasingly significant social, cultural, and political meanings.

3. Training students to enable themselves to deliver academic presentations in international meetings and contribute their articles to international journals in English.

4. Internationalising Japanese archaeology through education (see above) and writing and presenting in English as much as possible.

I have been elected a fellow of Society of Antiquaries of London on 19 June, 2008

I have been elected the 6th president of World Archaeological Congress (WAC), January, 2013

The outcomes so far include:

"An Archaeological History of Japan: 30.000 BC to AD 700". Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.

An application of social network theory and allied methods to the comparative study of the emergence and the development of social complexitykeyword : social network analysis, social systems theory, complexity, state formation, Japan, Europe2008.03.

The disciplinisation of archaeology and the formation of Modern institutionskeyword : modernity, disiciplinisation of scientific subjects, archaeology, nation-state, ethnicity1998.01"A study of the disciplinisation of archaeology and its interdependence with modernity and the nation-state":
The study traces the co-tarnsformational process of the disciplinisation of archaeology and the emergence, maturation and transformation of Modernity and the nation-state. An outcome will be published in the form of: Mizoguchi, Koji (in press) "Archaeology, Society and Identity in Modern Japan". Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press (due out in 2005).

An archeologcial study of the transformation of the conception of time and temporalitykeyword : time, temporality, scheduling, cyclical time, linear time, archaeology, social archaeology, prehistory2004.01"An archeologcial study of the transformation of the conception of time and temporality":
The study attempts to reconstruct the co-transformational process of social complexity and the conception of time from the hunter-gatherer stage through the emergencce of ancient states. Constituting a paer of the international project: "The origins of spirituality" (leader: Professor Lord Colin Renfrew, Unievrsity of Cambridge).

Current and Past Project

To investigate the inter-communal/regional networks of the Neolithic of England and the role played by enclosures in them by examining and excavating some enclosure sites of Dorstone, Herefordshire, UK.

The project, funded by the Templeton Foundation, U.S.A., aims to trace the trajectory of the development of "spirituality" and "religious activities" in a broad sense since the emergence of Homo Sapiens Sapiens through the emergence of complexity and the ancient state. I am the only Asian scholar chosen to be the core members of four for the project.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, Death Rituals, Social Order and the Archaeology of Immortality in the Ancient World, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 16. ( pp. 255-279) 'De-Paradoxisation of Paradoxes by Referring to Death as an Ultimate Paradox: The Case of the State-Formation Phase of Japan', 2015.10, [URL].

4.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, The Archaeology of Japan: from the Earliest Rice Farming Villages to the Rise of the State, Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-371, 2013.11, [URL], This is the first book-length study of the Yayoi and Kofun periods of Japan (c.600 BC–AD 700), in which the introduction of rice paddy-field farming from the Korean peninsula ignited the rapid development of social complexity and hierarchy that culminated with the formation of the ancient Japanese state. The author traces the historical trajectory of the Yayoi and Kofun periods by employing cutting-edge sociological, anthropological and archaeological theories and methods. The book reveals a fascinating process through which sophisticated hunting-gathering communities in an archipelago on the eastern fringe of the Eurasian continent were transformed materially and symbolically into a state..

5.

Carl Knappett, ed., Knappett, Carl, ed., 2013. Network Analysis in Archaeology: New Approaches to Regional Interaction (Mizoguchi, K. 'Evolution of prestige good systems: an application of network analysis to the transformation of communication systems and their media', pp. 151-178), Oxford University Press, 2013.04, The paper argues that the systemic generation of differentlal centrality to individual units of social interaction resulted in the formation of large bodies of socio-political integration in ancient societies. The thesis is illustrated through the investigation of evidence from the Yayoi and Kofun periods of Japan by applying formal network analysis methods..

6.

J. Lydon and U.Z. Rizvi, eds., Handbook of Postcolonial Archaeology, Left Coast Press, Chapter 6: "The colonial experience of the uncolonized and colonized: the case of East Asia, mainly as seen from Japan" (pp. 81-91), 2011.01, [URL].

Mizoguchi, Koji, Uchida, Junko, The Anyang Xibeigang Shang royal tombs revisited: a social archaeological approach, Antiquity, https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.19, 362, Issue 362, 2018.05, [URL], The Shang Dynasty has attracted much archaeological research, particularly the renowned ‘royal tombs’ of the Xibeigang cemetery at Anyang Yinxu, the last Shang capital. Understanding of the social strategies informing Shang mortuary practices is, however, very limited. A new reconstruction of the detailed chronology of the cemetery is presented here, allowing social theory to be applied, and reveals the strategic social decisions behind the placement of the tombs in relation to each other. The results of this analysis are important not only for the reconstruction of the social structure and organisation of the late Shang dynasty, but also for understanding the relationship between mortuary practices and the functioning of early states in other regions..

2.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, STAŠA BABIĆ, RAIMUND KARL, MONIKA MILOSAVLJEVIĆ, CARSTEN PALUDAN-MÜLLER, TIM MURRAY, JOHN ROBB, NATHAN SCHLANGER, ALESSANDRO VANZETTI, What is ‘European Archaeology’? What Should it be?, European Journal of Archaeology, https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2016.12, 20, 1, 4-35, 2017.01, [URL], ‘European archaeology’ is an ambiguous and contested rubric. Rooted in the political histories of European archaeology, it potentially unites an academic field and provides a basis for international collaboration and inclusion, but also creates essentialized identities and exclusionary discourses. This discussion article presents a range of views on what European archaeology is, where it comes from, and what it could be..

3.

The trajectory of the transformation of archaeological theories and its historical background.

4.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, A Future of Archaeology, Antiquity, http://dx.doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2014.39, 89, 343, 12-22, 2015.02, [URL], As archaeologists we look to the past, but where might archaeology be going in the future? In this issue of Antiquity we begin a new feature where we invite archaeologists from different parts of the world to consider how the subject may or should develop in the coming years. For the first of these, Koji Mizoguchi, President of the World Archaeological Congress and Professor at Kyushu University in Japan, offers a perspective on the regional traditions of archaeology within an increasingly globalised world..

5.

When the World Changes: An Archaeological Approach through a case study of the Middle Yayoi Period in Northern Kyushu.

6.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, The centre of their life-world: the archaeology of experience at the Middle Yayoi cemetery of Tateiwa-Hotta, Japan, Antiquity, 88, 341, 836-850, 2014.09, [URL], Social analysis of cemeteries has traditionally viewed them as static images of social organisation. In this study of the Middle Yayoi jar-burial cemetery of Tateiwa-Hotta, however, the dynamic interrelationship between competing groups and successive generations can be discerned. Two initial burials proved to be foundational acts, followed by over 40 further burials spread over a series of generations. Differences in grave orientation and grave goods signalled the separate identities of the adjacent hamlets that came to bury their lineage leaders in this prominent location. Competition between lineages is indicated by externally acquired grave goods, including prestigious bronze mirrors from the Han commandery of Lelang in Korea, and by the varying styles of burial jar that illustrate and symbolise connections or alliances with other communities..

7.

The organisational characteristics of the Ysyoi society and its hierarchisation: communication, contingency, and networks.

Mizoguchi, Koji, The emergence of anthropomorphic representation in the Japanese archipelago: a social systemic perspective, Image and Imagination: a global prehistory of figurative representation (McDonald Institute Monographs), pp. 185-197, 2007.11.

Koji Mizoguchi, THE CENTRALIZATION AND HIERACHISATION OF INTER-COMMUNAL RELATIONS CONSTITUTED BY ISLAND TOPOGRAPHY: THE CASE OF JAPAN, European Association of Archaeologists, 2017.09, [URL], The topography and the distribution of watercourses of an island significantly constitutes the topological characteristics of emergent networks of interaction that lead to differentialdevelopments of the centrality of network nodes, resulting in inter-communal hiearchisation. By investigating the process of inter-polity hiearchisation that rapidly progressedduring the Late Yayoi and the Early Kofun periods of Japan, the paper illustrates how the unique topography and the presence of an inland sea connecting the gateway communitiesof the Kyushu island and the Kinki region of the Honshu island of the Japanese archipelago resulted in the rapid development of inter-communal hierarchy without thesignificant uneven distribution of resources, differential developments of social complexity, or that of military powers..

2.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, Formal network analysis and archaeological theorisation: a proposition for fruitful collaboration, European Association of Archaeologists Annual Meeting 2015, 2015.09, [URL], How to choose an appropriate formal network analysis method determines the usefulness and validity of the outcome of the investigation. The paper examines the implications of different formal network analysis methods and consider their suitability to different types of data and research objectives..

3.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, Contextualizing the Theory of Archaeological Theorization, Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting 2015, 2015.04, [URL], Archaeological theories are the products of their contemporary social formation. The paper examines the ways in which the acts of theorization are embedded in contemporary society and its reality/realities..

4.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, The constitution of life-world and its materialisation: a study of the emergent process of certain realities from Yayoi period Japan and Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age England, UK., Theoretical Archaeology Group Annual Conference, 2014.12, [URL].

5.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, How we have come to do archaeology the way(s) we do: a meta-critique of current ar- chaeological discursive formation, European Association of Archaeologists 19th Annual Meeting, 2013.09, [URL].

6.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, Prestige Goods and Social Hierarchization Revisited: A Formal Network Approach to the Hierarchization of Intercommunal Relations in the Middle Yayoi Period in Northern Kyushu, Japan, Society for American Archaeology 2013 Annual Meeting, 2013.04, [URL].

7.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, An archaeological approach to materiality: a critical long-term perspective, World Archaeological Congress 7th International Conference, Dead Sea, Jordan, 2013.01, [URL], This paper argues that materiality needs to be situated in historically-contingent contexts in terms of what element(s) of materiality mattered most to people, i.e., what specific effects does materiality generate? and what specific consequences does it lead to? This paper argues for this approach to materiality by investigating long-term material-human dialectics that unfolded in pre- and proto-historic Japan, between c. 4,000 BC to 500 AD..

8.

Koji MIZOGUCHI, Society against stratification’ and its transformation: the case of Yayoi period northern Kyushu, Japan, The 34th Annual Conference of the Theoretical Archaeology Group, 2012.12, [URL].

The colonial experience of the colonized and uncolonized: the case of East Asia, mainly as seen from Japan, [URL].

13.

The orgnisational characteristics of the Yayoi society and its hierarchisation: communications, contingency, and networks.

14.

Rethinking “prestige good systems”: the self-organization of complexity and hierarchy on the periphery of the empire, [URL].

15.

MIZOGUCHI, KOJI. "THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER AND THE GENERATION OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL: A NETWORK APPROACH TO THE KOFUN (MOUNDED TOMB) PERIOD OF JAPAN". 19TH CONGRESS OF THE INDO-PACIFIC PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION, 19TH CONGRESS OF THE INDO-PACIFIC PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences Conference Centre, Hanoi, 1 DECEMBER, 2009, [URL].

16.

Koji MIZOGUCHI 25.5.2008 The long-term transformation of communication systems: the case of Japanese prehistory (in the session "Beyond immediacy and intimate: individuals and experience in the long duree). Theoretical Archaeology Group (USA) Inaugural Meeting, Columbia University, USA, [URL].

17.

koji Mizoguchi 24.5.2008 The formation of large-scale polities and the "transcendental" (in the session: "Creating and Contesting Knowledge in Antiquity) Theoretical Archaeology Group (USA) Inaugural Meeting at Columbia University, New York, USA, [URL].

The Grand Prize of the 5th Japanese Archaeological Association Prize is given to: Mizoguchi, Koji. 2013. The Archaeology of Japan: from the earliest rice farming villages to the rise of the state. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

8th Kyushu Archaeological Society Award

3rd Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Prize (JSPS Prize) for "Theoretical and Methodological Development of Social Archaeology and Its Applications"

Educational

Educational Activities

My seminar course for MA students and Ph.D. candidates are designed to let students virtually experience a whole process of the production of archaeological knowledge and train them to become capable of reporting new findings, methodological, theoretical, or otherwise, to international audience.

The unit consists of 1) theme-oriented discussion classes and 2) English-presentation sessions on the outcomes of students' on-going researches.

Many of the students of the class 2003-2004 have already presented their papers in international conferences, notably in "The 3rd World Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology, Daejon, Korea, June 2004".

Other Educational Activities

2013.08, Myself and research students were involved in the preliminary research excavations of Neolithic hill-top enclosures and a long barrow in Dorston, Herefordshire, UK in late August, 2013. It was the third season of what is going to be a long-term project exploring human-environment-landscape interactions in the early Neolithic period, and the students experienced at first hand practical English communication in a field-research environment and learnt how to undertake field and museum research in UK. .

2012.09, Myself and research students were involved in the preliminary research excavations of Neolithic hill-top enclosures and a long barrow in Dorston, Herefordshire, UK in late August and early September, 2012. It was the second season of what is going to be a long-term project exploring human-environment-landscape interactions in the early Neolithic period, and the students experienced at first hand practical English communication in a field-research environment and learnt how to undertake field and museum research in UK. (http://bit.ly/QcZnvV).

2011.07, Myself and research students were involved in the preliminary research excavations of Neolithic hill-top enclosures and a long barrow in Dorston, Herefordshire, UK in July and early August, 2011. It was the first season of what is going to be a long-term project exploring human-environment-landscape interactions in the early Neolithic period, and the students experienced at first hand practical English communication in a field-research environment and learnt how to undertake field and museum research in UK..

Social

Professional and Outreach Activities

2011~present: Collaborative regional archaeological project with University of Manchester and Herefordshire Archaeology.